A parallel disc device for studying corrosion under intense flow conditions

A novel electrochemical Parallel Disc Device (PDD) has been designed and built at the Process Engineering and Light Metals (PELM) Centre of Central Queensland University. This device, built primarily to study aspects of flow accelerated corrosion, consists of two discs separated by a precision controlled gap. The bottom disc (which accommodates the working electrode) is immobile while the top disc rotates and enables a flow of liquid between the discs. The gap between the discs can be set within the range 0.050 to 5.000 mm with a precision of 0.005 mm. The PDD is capable of generating very high wall shear rates and the shear of liquid at the working electrode is purely tangential as long as flow between the discs remains laminar.This paper presents results of preliminary Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) characterisations of the fluid flow in the gap between the parallel discs. In addition we present some results for the electrochemical reduction of dissolved oxygen at a copper PDD electrode.